By Tiney Ricciardi

Copyright denverpost

Surprising, grateful, and transformative – these are just a few of the words local participants on the upcoming season of “Love is Blind” use to describe their experiences on the show.

Denver plays host for the ninth season of Netflix’s blockbuster reality dating series, which seeks to play matchmaker in a unique way. Singles meet and mingle, but they aren’t allowed to see one another. The goal is to build an emotional connection so deep within days of dating that none of the superficial details matter. In fact, couples only get to meet face-to-face once they’ve gotten engaged, sight unseen.

Viewers will be properly introduced to the 30-plus Denverites on the cast when the new season debuts on Oct. 1. And though the premise might sound eccentric, several of the hopeful romantics tell The Denver Post that the unique environment produces these unique outcomes.

Cast members are prohibited from using their phones or any device that connects to the internet for the 10 days while dating in so-called “pods,” or individual rooms connected by a wall in which they chat with potential suitors. Giving up that line to the outside was a daunting prospect at first, said 29-year-old social worker Kalybriah Haskin. But it ended up being essential to the process.

“Initially, I was so nervous. I was like, ‘What is my mom doing? What are my friends doing? What am I missing out on?’” Haskin said. “But after a day or two, I enjoyed not having my phone. I enjoyed being able to be locked in to a person… I enjoyed being able to fully embrace the experience. I think it was a very pivotal point of the experience.”

Disconnecting also helped participant Madison Maidenberg fully dissect her thoughts and decisions.

“You don’t realize how much noise is happening and how many other voices really influence you,” the 28-year-old UX/UI designer said. “I could actually hear myself, think for myself. I felt so much more at peace with decisions.”

Not being able to see who you’re talking to also meant finding other ways to build attraction. Jordan Keltner, a 30-year-old service manager, said things he might typically gloss over dating in the real world or on apps ended up meaning a lot to him.

“I never truly understood how important it was to be attracted to somebody’s laugh and the tone of their voice,” Keltner said. “Little things, like how someone would structure their sentences or the words they would use. On the outside, you maybe just brush over those facts.”

Being immersed in the “Love is Blind” experience also inspired participant Blake Anderson to become more vulnerable in a short amount of time. After all, if you’re planning to get engaged, you want to cover all the big and deep topics.

“The thing I found surprising about the actual dating within the pods is how comfortable I felt,” Anderson, a 34-year-old accountant, said. “The initial bizarre nature, if you’re able to kind of put that aside, it’s easy to put your guard down.”

Still, there can be drawbacks. For example, participants don’t get to see how their partner might handle real-life situations.

“When you’re in the pods, you have this idea of the person,” Maidenberg said. “You don’t see how they are in certain situations and truly how they operate in life.”

Being separated by a wall also allows for a certain margin of error between what someone is representing and reality, Haskin said.

“If I would have seen you in real life I would have known, OK you might not work out every day like you stated. It’s just little things like that. It’s like, I could have fact-checked a couple of the things you sold me in the pods versus just believing,” she said.

Missing out on a person’s body language too, meant not being able to read the entirety of a situation. “I need that body language to really see like, are you being genuine right now or are you saying this and blowing me off or rolling your eyes?” Haskin added.

Despite the challenges, these locals chose the “Love is Blind” experiment to try something radical. Most people who sign up for the show attest that what they’ve done in the past dating wise hasn’t worked for them. The format may have been different, but could the pool of singles go beyond Mile High City’s notoriously lackluster Menver stereotype?

“We didn’t get as much of the flavor of Denver as far as Ikon or Epic or talk about rock climbing or things that are very iconicly Denver. But as it pertains to the dating dynamics, on brand,” said Maidenberg.

“We definitely have our fair share of borders and skiers and beer drinkers,” added 29-year-old nurse Alie Iappe.

Who will get engaged this season? Find out when Netflix drops episodes one through six of “Love is Blind” on Oct. 1.

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